Tag Archives: on-site sanitation

Sanitation experts at IRC have compiled the first version of a reference guide on low-cost sanitation for non-sewered service models, SanPack for short. Dr Christine Sijbesma and Joep Verhagen have collected materials that cover services for all stages of the sanitation life cycle, from preparation activities to the emptying, recycling and productive use of toilet contents. Per stage you can find a short intro text and links that lead you to relevant documents on a specific topic.

2.6 billion people are waiting for a toilet and the faecal sludge of an additional 1.5 billion people never gets treated. In the face of these indeed formidable challenges, the sanitation sector seems to have forgotten to celebrate the growing sense that we are getting a grip on how to tackle the problem of non-sewered sanitation. A new IRC paper [1] is an invitation to everyone to contribute by commenting on the framework and by sharing lessons learnt.

The framework presented for non-sewered sanitation is based on a few key principles:

Sanitation is a public good and hence, national and local governments have a key responsibility to ensure that sanitation services that last are provided to all.

The parameters for a sustainable sanitation service need to be built around access and use; operation and maintenance and safe faecal sludge management.

The framework identifies political and individual commitment as a key condition for sustainable sanitation services.

In addition, a sanitation service contains the following components: the enabling environment, the creation of demand, the supply chains, and well aligned financial arrangements and incentives.

With increasing sanitation coverage, the focus of a sanitation service needs to shift from increasing access to and use of latrines (getting onto the sanitation ladder) to O&M and the safe disposal or productive uses of faecal sludge.

The framework serves as a starting point for the development of a functioning sanitation service. However, the main argument of the framework is not towards a certain approach for demand creation or sanitation marketing but towards including and interlinking all four components and to consciously create political support for sanitation – creating a sustainable service that lasts.

We welcome your feedback and comments to further improve the framework and we are especially keen on learning from you how different components of sanitation framework can and are being operationalized and interlinked.

Most of all we want this framework to support the improvement of our collective impact so that the long wait for 1.6 billion can end.

This study evaluates how effective a worm based sanitation system is in reducing the rate at which solid waste accumulates and at how worms can improve the quality of effluent by reducing pathogen levels and the concentrations of harmful chemicals. Both pilot scale laboratory reactors and a prototype Tiger Toilet were fed with human faeces on a daily basis and the accumulated solid wastes in the systems were weighed. Every week microbiological and chemical analysis was carried out on the effluents of the systems, as well as of a control reactor without worms, which provided a point of comparison.

Over the course of the investigation, the worms processed the waste and reduced the total accumulated solids by 90% in the laboratory reactor and by 70% in the prototype reactor. Pathogen levels were reduced by an average of 99.79% and 95.45% in the laboratory reactor and the prototype reactor respectively, over this period. There was a reduction in the levels of harmful chemicals, such as COD, which reduced by around 94% in both reactors. This investigation verified that the Tiger Toilet technology provides an effective, low cost, low tech solution to less economically developed countries’ sanitation problems.

Dear SUSANA colleagues, I would like to forward this newsletter of the NGO ‘Children Without Worms', where the current discussion on mass deworming is addressed. Best regards Bella Bella Monse GIZ Philippines Link to the newsletter: www.childrenwithoutworms.org/quarterly-dose First image of newsletter: Begin forwarded message: (note by moderator: the ne […]

Dear Graham, I think the BSF (black soldier fly) would not be grown inside of the pit but at an external place as it needs rather controlled conditions, and probably more oxygen than what would be available inside of the pit. Or perhaps I misunderstood your question? Regards, Elisabeth

Hi Eng. Mughal I very well agree with your observations. Tahunganh needs some assistance in substance. As far as I know, Dr. Barbara Senkwe PhD of USAID SUWASA has done such work in the South Sudan but I doubt if she is still available on her email address at bsenkwe@ard-suwasa.org as the project is winding up soon. We featured her article ‘An Emerging Fecal […]

Hi Virginia Thanks for your important work you are doing in Madagascar. The country was in focus in March this year as its president Mr. Hery Rajaonarimampianina became the first Chief of State in the world to sign a pledge in public to end open defecation. We presented a short mention of this in our Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene May-June 2015 editi […]

Hi Kris Thank you very much for your thoughts. We agree with your concerns. That's why we have given so much importance to develop the protocol so easy and cost effective which can potentially be done at the local level. However, phage therapy has been successful to treat diarrhoeal infection in human gut which is as complex as waste water system. Moreo […]

Integration of Nutrition and WaSH programmes was the key topic discussed at the multi sectorial panel seminar hosted by Irish Aid, the IFGH and the Development Studies Association of Ireland on the 19th May.

Sustainability is without doubt one of the most burning subject matters that subsumes many of the issues that we are seeing in CLTS and wider WASH practice.On Wednesday 24th June, from 14.00-15.30 BST (convert to your time zone here), the CLTS Knowledge Hub will offer a webinar on the subject.

Over 50 female leaders from around the world recently published a declaration calling for the end of poor sanitation and hygiene in the developing world. Among those leaders are the first ladies of Madagascar and Malawi, both of whom announced the declaration in Washington, D.C.